


Salvation

by Blue_Hood



Series: F4 ABO [3]
Category: Fantastic Four, Inhumans (Comics), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha Black Bolt - Freeform, Alpha Johnny, Alpha Reed, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Crystal, Omega Medusa, Omega Sue, Omega Verse, Omega Victor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:02:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28601889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Hood/pseuds/Blue_Hood
Summary: King Black Bolt threatens to level a city a day if his demands are not met. One of those demands is that the Human Torch marry Princess Crystal. Things are not what they seem but Johnny's still pissed about his part in the whole mess.
Relationships: Crystal Amaquelin/Johnny Storm
Series: F4 ABO [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2095398
Kudos: 2





	Salvation

Johnny just can’t believe this. No, seriously, it never effing occurred to him that he, an Alpha, might be forced into an arranged marriage. Arranged marriages were something parents either entered into on their kids’ behalf as babies or something an Alpha entered into with the parents of a prospective mate. Adult Alphas were not forced into arranged marriages, it just wasn’t done, it didn’t happen. Yet, with the threat of a major city being levelled each day by King Black Bolt, Susan lost the fight to protect her brother’s freedom to choose his mate. Also, what the Hell?

Okay. Johnny closed his eyes and did something that would’ve made his father cheer if he was still alive, he thought about the situation rationally. First, he gathered what he knew of the situation itself. The Inhumans were a race of superhumans who had lived in seclusion for centuries but recently, they saw how people with powers were being treated by the world and took offense. Apparently, marriages are always arranged for couples in Attilan, usually by something called the Genetic Council. Queen Medusa threatened, on behalf of her husband, to level a random major city each day until the humans ceded to their demands. One of those demands was for a suitable mate for Princess Crystal, the queen’s sister and an Omega. Johnny was chosen for being a prominent Alpha with superpowers, making him suitable in the eyes of Attilan. Another demand was freedom for the Enhanced, as people with powers were collectively called. That term was negotiated very strongly to buy time to enact laws granting equality to the Enhanced but the Inhumans swore they would make good on their threat if they did not see real progress in the form of actions not words. Mutant leaders had quickly thrown in their support, the X-Men and Brotherhood actually agreed to work together so that humans couldn’t try to use them to tell the Inhumans to back off. Focus on the situation at hand, not the general state of affairs. What does he know about his betrothed? He knows she’s the queen’s sister, he knows that for reasons unknown she was first in line conditional that she get married to an Alpha even though Black Bolt inherited the throne from his parents and has a younger brother Maximus. He knows what her powers are, she’s basically the Avatar. He also knows that she’s an Omega, of course, and that marriage in Attilan is about genetics. Adultery is still a capital crime in Attilan if the affair could produce a child, if both parties are physically unable to have children then it’s basically okay as long as they’re honest about it. Sorta comforting. Marriages cannot be annulled and divorce isn’t a thing in Attilan, which is also sorta comforting. Thinking about how marriage works in Attilan made Johnny realize Sue probably wasn’t negotiating a betrothal but rather trying to shoot it down, which is more comforting than knowing how affairs work in Attilan.

The ceremony felt almost rushed but then again, King Black Bolt had threatened to use his super powerful voice to kill millions to set it up. Inhumans viewed humans as lessers and thanks to the way they rallied around them, mutants as near equals. Superhumans were more or less welcome in Attilan, baseline humans like the politicians who witnessed Johnny’s wedding were not. One thing nobody even tried to tell Johnny was the reason for the timing of the wedding. He was told last minute that his bride was nearing her heat. The way he was told made it seem normal, like he was lucky to be marrying her because he got to mate her soon. Apparently mating and consummation were the same thing in Attilan. Outside the Inhuman nation, people didn’t always get married before they mated and people could be married without being mated. Then again, outside Attilan, people chose their own spouse. They were damn lucky Crystal and Johnny were truly compatible. Some Omegas smelt disgusting to some Alphas and heavenly to others, and vice versa. Crystal and Johnny were attracted instinctively. The smell of her oncoming heat actually relaxed him during the ceremony.

While he was still pissed about how he wound up married and mated to Crystal, feeling like there should have been some kind of courtship beforehand instead of afterwards, Johnny quickly grew to love his wife. Of course, he knew mating bonds could do that so he was still pissed about being duped into mating her. Overall, Johnny was conflicted. He wished he had more of a choice in Attilan but he could appreciate the way nobody told him he was ridiculous for feeling that way because Attilan was so much more structured than the world he was used to.

Another thing, in Attilan, only people who are either permitted or ordered not to have children can receive contraceptives or suppressants. There are only three reasons someone in Attilan can go on suppressants or take contraceptives. One, they are a member of the Genetic Council. The council oversaw Terrigenesis and conception, which is why they were banned from undergoing the former or having children. The future council members were randomly selected from the kingdom’s infants each year, although there were restrictions in place to ensure that the members were chosen from all castes. Two: they have enough children. That was the most common reason, Attilan had to keep its population under control without letting the Inhuman race die out. For most married couples, the cut off was two children. Between presenting and marriage, youths are allowed mild suppressants that weaken their scent and the instinctive need to mate to make it easier for youths to remain virgins until marriage. Three: the Genetic Council forbids them and/or their spouse from having children. Only Inhumans with powerful and/or uncontrollable gifts may be forbidden from having children, which makes it the rarest reason someone could be on either suppressants or contraceptives.

King Black Bolt falls under the third category nonetheless, he cannot turn his gift off meaning it is both powerful and uncontrollable. Married couples are typically both on suppressants, even if only one of them qualifies for them. Queen Medusa is taken off her heat suppressants for health reasons at regular intervals, as is Black Bolt. When mates on suppressants go off them, one mate has to take contraceptives to ensure there are no accidental pregnancies. In the case of Black Bolt and Medusa, the king takes contraceptives that render him temporarily infertile. When he thought about it, Johnny found it weird that the Genetic Council didn’t render the king barren if they wanted to avoid him passing on his genes but he supposed they were just using a pre-existing system instead of inventing something new. Even though they have been on suppressants and contraceptives since they were married- Johnny heard they had both been given the latter before the wedding- their cycles still managed to sync up when they were taken off the former. During the week they were occupied, Maximus and Crystal usually handled their siblings’ royal duties. For the first couple of years that Johnny was in Attilan, he would shadow them before taking over as the interim king in preparation for his ascension. During those years, he was going to be busy learning about his kingdom when he was not shadowing his wife and her brother-in-law. Maternity leave was a thing in Attilan and the duties of the father-to-be were usually limited to accommodate what a pregnant mate did to an Alpha’s instincts/hormones.

The thing Johnny found the strangest about his new home was the absence of Betas. They simply did not exist among Inhumans. In fact, Inhumans struggled to understand what a Beta was. Eventually, after getting increasingly more frustrated with trying to explain that, Johnny was given a pass to help make sure humans were keeping their word about treating the Enhanced well. He joined the X-Men, learning that the Fantastic Four disbanded after his wedding and Ben joined the Avengers while Reed and Sue retired. Since the X-Men ran a school, they were able to loan him a textbook on dynamics. When he tried to show his new family the part about Betas, he read something interesting. Maximus’ smirk was uncalled for but expected, “According to this, there were no Betas in our ancestors’ time. It would seem we simply never developed a natural need for them.”

“Yeah, yeah. In some parts of history,” he flipped through the book, “Here. Alphas had the most rights but Betas had the most advantages. Betas have muted instincts and they don’t have cycles. Early suppressants in the human world were created by studying Betas.”

Karnak took the book and looked through it, “It says here Betas can weaken pheromones.”

“Yeah. That’s where their reputation as peacemakers come from. If I remember my dynamics class right then originally people thought Betas gave off calming pheromones but it was later discovered their presence weakened aggressive Alpha pheromones. The longer they were around the Alphas, the weaker those pheromones became until they stopped riling each other up. Early suppressants were based on Betas but nowadays we call those scent blockers because that’s all they really do, block pheromones. I don’t know how or why, some people manage to abuse scent blockers.”

“Why do people even buy scent blockers?” asked Gorgon.

“Various reasons. In some places, Omegas use them to pass as Betas because they think they’ll be discriminated against if people knew. Taking scent blockers to pass as a Beta is stupid because the only advantages Betas still have are tied to their lack of a cycle. Since Betas don’t have a cycle, they take less time off. Trying to trick the system like that is what causes people to develop a dependence on suppressants, sometimes mixed with scent blockers. I won’t say scent blockers are useless though. The blockers can be used to prevent someone from tracking. As far as I know, Sue still carries a couple doses with her for that reason.”

“She’s afraid of being tracked?” said Triton, confused.

“Our foster parents told us to always carry blockers just to be safe, because it makes escaping someone dangerous much easier. Sue’s at a higher risk for that sort of thing than I am but nowadays she can make a forcefield around herself and turn invisible so I’m not sure if she still carries.” Johnny leaned back “Plus Sue and I presented early.”

“How early?” asked Crystal.

“Well, let’s see, we were both in single digits. I think it was just after our father was convicted of killing our mother. The thing is, when we presented, our scents changed but our senses didn’t. I had these things called flare ups growing up where my senses would suddenly get stronger or my instincts would kick in but then they’d go back to normal. Sue didn’t have as many flare ups but hers were worse because her flare ups were her body preparing to start having a cycle. Reed figures that if I had presented all at once the way most Alphas do then I would be as powerful an Alpha as he is.”

“How powerful is that?”

“Reed’s one of those one in a hundred thousand Alphas who can control other Alphas with his voice the way almost all Alphas can control Omegas.”

“What?” Maximus was shocked such a thing existed.

Johnny pointed to the book, “It should be in there somewhere. Those Alphas used to be called Pack Alphas before that term was expanded to apply to any Alpha who leads a group including another Alpha. You know Reed was a child prodigy, right?” At the nods he received, Johnny asked “Did you know he got bullied for that? As a child prodigy, he breezed through normal school into the most prestigious colleges there are. While he was in college, some of the adult students who spent their entire lives working hard to earn a place at those Ivy League schools took offense to Reed getting scholarships to attend while he was still a kid. Reed presented while some other Alpha students were giving him a hard time. I don’t know all the details but I know he sent six grown men to the hospital and that Beta guards had to hold him still before he could calm down. I don’t think Reed knows all the details, I think he might’ve blacked out when his Alpha instincts kicked in. Since Betas weaken the pheromones of Alphas and Omegas, their presence probably did a lot to help him come down. If you’ve met Reed, you’ll understand why I might have poked and prodded him a bit. Thing is, Reed does everything he can short of using scent blockers to control his pheromones.”

“What do pheromones have to do with anything?” asked Medusa, Johnny glanced at Black Bolt to see if his hands were up, which would indicate she was translating.

“You guys don’t know how the Voice works, do you?”

“What do you mean? Of course-”

“It works through pheromones.”

“What?!” Gorgon said “That’s ridiculous.”

“My sister and I started giving off Alpha and Omega pheromones before we were ten. The group home we were in let us share a room because a doctor confirmed we didn’t have the senses, instincts or cycles to go with our pheromones. A doctor told Sue that exposure to my pheromones, even though she couldn’t smell them, had probably changed how her body responded to Alphas. That was a very confusing way of saying she probably had a tolerance to those pheromones. With that tolerance, she has a long track record of resisting the Voice without much trouble. Reed’s the hardest one to resist and he’s strong enough to control other Alphas. In fact, I think Reed’s the only one she really had to put effort into resisting. Reed usually controls his pheromones to keep his Voice around normal power levels. Tick him off, all bets are off. Seriously, I’ve seen this guy order around a room full of enemy soldiers just because he didn’t see Sue. It was only after that incident that they started courting because Reed really couldn’t explain away his extreme reaction without ticking off Sue and none of us are dumb enough to do that.”

“You guys are afraid of your sister?” Again Gorgon found that ridiculous.

“My sister once calmly explained to Reed how she could create a force field inside someone’s body and expand it until they explode. Reed actually ranked our powers once, Ben came in dead last.”

“Where about you and Sue?” asked Crystal.

“Well, Reed couldn’t figure that out. I guess I should say he tried to rank our powers. Sue can create force fields, she can put one under her feet in order to fly, she could theoretically kill someone by making one in their body, her force fields are practically unbreakable. Then on top of that, she’s got invisibility. I’ve seen Sue turn a door invisible so that we could see on the other side without getting caught if someone or something dangerous was on the other side. Overall, quite powerful. Reed’s power lets him morph his body into any shape he can imagine. He actually has to focus to match the dimensions he had before the accident, although most people think his body naturally snaps back to that size. Reed chooses to stick to the basics, stretching his arms and legs, rolling up in a ball or wrapping himself around people in danger. His body’s elasticity makes bullets bounce off him.”

“What about your power?” asked Maximus.

“When we were testing my power, I destroyed the equipment. Sue said I was nearing the temperature of the sun. Not much that can survive those temps and since I already had quite a bit of control, Reed and Sue decided to hold off on further testing until he could make something strong enough to withstand the power I put off back then. We kinda know how powerful I am, even though he never did get around to making something to contain the heat of the sun. To make a long story short, I once vaporized an entire army while we were trapped in another dimension called the Negative Zone. After I did that, I passed out. Once we were safely back home, Reed theorized that I wouldn’t pass out if I used more of my power more often, that I was only exhausted by the blast because I don’t usually operate near that power level. While he was sharing that theory, he remembered why I don’t do that.” At Crystal’s confused look, Johnny said “I can burn as hot as the sun but if I go near those temps close to Earth, I could set off a chain reaction that would wipe out the entire planet. When we were in the Negative Zone, I put all of my power into a single blast to destroy Annihilus’ army, my nova flame. Reed was actually wrong on two levels about using my power at higher levels making the nova flame easier. Not only would I be endangering the planet if I made an effort to burn hotter more often, I’d also be using up the power needed to create the nova flame.”

“How would burning hot wipe out the planet?” asked Crystal.

“Fire has three components, three things it needs to burn: oxygen, heat and fuel. The hotter a fire burns the more oxygen and fuel it uses. I burn too hot, the air around me could become depleted of oxygen. There’s actually water vapor in the air around us, which plays a key role in the water cycle. Messing up the water cycle could have serious consequences for various ecosystems. Honestly, there’s a lot of reasons you do not want the heat of the sun anywhere near the planet’s surface but that’s just what I could think of off the top of my head.”

“Right.”

“If I came anywhere near the polar ice caps burning hotter than usual, I could make them melt faster and flood the planet, just for an example.” That explained things much better than his previous attempt had.

Years passed after Johnny’s wedding, he had a daughter named Luna, the world actually managed to meet the terms the Inhumans set and mutants were no longer actively discriminated against. In short, things were good. Then Galactus returned. The Silver Surfer warned Earth’s heroes of his impending arrival and they gathered at the place Norrin Radd predicted he would arrive. The Inhuman Royal Family were the last to join, finding the gathered heroes being beaten back by three heralds. Johnny said “Phoenix, mind link.” Mentally, he asked Ben  _ Remember how Reed said all four of us have two mutations? _

_ Now’s not the time for riddles, Johnny, _ was his answer from his wife.

_ Fine. Reed theorized I have the ability to absorb cosmic energy. Galactus’ heralds are imbued with that power when they become heralds. Iceman, I need you to make an ice wall, as cold as you can get it, between the heralds and us after I light up. The best way for me to absorb power is by converting it to fuel for my flames. _

Pyro asked,  _ You sure this will work? _

_ Nope but has anyone else made progress? _

_ No. _

_ Truth be told we barely won last time and he only had one herald that time and the Surfer switched sides. _ Johnny took off, running at top speed. With a shrug, Iceman started work on the wall, buying his allies time to get on the right side of it before he had to grow the shield and they all needed to hunker down.

“War Machine, keep an eye on the thermal readings,” Ben barked out.

The colonel began giving regular updates as Iceman strained to hold the barrier. In less than ten minutes, War Machine announced “Two heralds down, one to go. Torch keeps getting hotter.”

Seconds later, Iceman said “I can’t hold this much longer.” A few other mutants snapped out of their daze and relieved him of his post, taking over freezing duties.

Pyro escorted the exhausted mutant to the X-Men’s jet, under Magneto’s watchful gaze. The metal bender was able to reunite with his long lost mate after the professor agreed to back the Inhumans’ play. His lieutenant seemed to follow his example and began courting his former roommate. The fact that the Brotherhood and X-Men worked well together was widely known. The fact that several members of the Brotherhood had mates who were X-Men, including the current and future leaders, was an open secret in the Enhanced community. Were word to get out, the two factions would lose some presence by either having to officially merge or the mutant couples involved having to pick a side, weakening the side they leave.

“All three heralds are down,” War Machine announced. “Everybody should move back, that ice isn’t gonna hold up against Torch’s heat no matter how much we want it to.” Everyone hurried back to their transport and cleared the area. Quicksilver stopped to tell the Inhumans where to go since their transport was a teleporting dog and Pyro wound up hitching a ride with the X-Men. Most people disembarked upon arrival to watch from a safe distance. Phoenix restored the mind-link.

Crystal asked,  _ Do you know what you’re doing now? _

_ Gonna torch Galactus with a Nova Flame once I get high enough. Apologies in advance to anyone with nature powers for the mess this is gonna cause. _ He blocked them off in preparation for his finishing move.

Over the mind link, Crystal basically shouted  _ Nightcrawler, get ready to catch him! _

Ben confirmed  _ Johnny’s gonna pass out once he uses the Nova Flame, if Galactus doesn’t kill him. _

Nightcrawler caught him seconds after he began falling, bringing him a safe distance away as the present scientists tried to confirm that Johnny’s plan worked. Reed, who the Surfer had pulled out of retirement with Sue, told Norrin “You need to give his powers a jump start.”

Nodding solemnly, the Silver Surfer fired a careful blast at Johnny, who woke up a second later. “Did it work? Did we win?”

“You’re not on fire,” observed Sue.

Johnny asked “Why are you here?”

“The Surfer pulled me and Reed in. By the way, you’re an uncle.”

“And you have a niece.” Johnny stood up, “But seriously, Galactus? Gone again?”

“It would appear so,” Reed said “But we’re still running tests. Silver Surfer had to give you a jump start after you used the Nova Flame.”

“So the planet’s still doomed-”

“Don’t underestimate mutants,” warned Pyro as he passed, boarding the X-Men jet once more after checking in with his boss.

“Okay. We’re good for now, right?”

“Yes.” Sue said “You and I need to get together some time and talk.”

“Yeah, you still have my number. I think. I’m a bit confused, did Reed do that override thing?”

The Inhumans all turned to the retired leader of the Fantastic Four “It’s not what you think. My secondary power is controlling the energy our power comes from. Johnny’s secondary power is absorbing cosmic energy. Combined, the two of us act as a filter to keep all four of us from losing our powers when separated from our home universe. Johnny calls it an override because I used my Voice to channel it and the Voice overrides the autonomy of those affected. I’m not sure what Ben and Sue’s secondary powers are, as they would have to pertain to our shared well of power.” Reed told his brother-in-law “You might be disoriented because you used up all of your power, causing you to start falling from a great height before Nightcrawler teleported you here. The difference in atmosphere combined with the jumpstart the Surfer gave you likely has your head a bit jumbled.”

“Okay. Sue said I’m an uncle so I also think I’m missing some information there.”

“Right.”

Sue cut him off “Another time. Why don’t you help the other scientists confirm Galactus is gone so the mutants can start fixing the damage?”

“Alright, Susan.”

Johnny asked his sister “What did you do?”

“For now, all you need to know is you have a niece and a nephew. Ben’s your nephew’s godfather and Victor’s your niece’s.”

“Victor as in Victor von Doom?”

“Yes. There were complications, Victor managed to save us both. Oh, and Reed nearly conquered the Negative Zone on accident, again.”

Johnny looked conflicted before deciding “I don’t wanna know. We’ll have to set up a playdate for the kids and catch up.”

“Yeah.”

Johnny waited until she was gone then pulled up a hologram web browser on his wrist communicator and googled his sister “Not what I was expecting. She named her son for our father.” He closed out of the browser and put a hand on Lockjaw.

As they were transported to Attilan, Crystal asked “Why would she keep that from you?”

“After our father was convicted of manslaughter, he told Sue to tell me he was dead. I found out the truth on my own. He, uh, he felt guilty for our mother’s death since he had insisted on operating on her after their accident. Nobody else blamed him. The manslaughter charge was for killing a loan shark. The difference between manslaughter and murder is that murder requires what they call malicious aforethought. You have to either want to kill or seriously harm someone, or have a disregard for their life, you don’t care if you kill them. Manslaughter basically means it was an accident, if you hit someone with a car then that’s vehicular manslaughter unless you ran over them on purpose. Dad didn’t set out to kill the guy, not in any way that the cops could prove, so they charged him with manslaughter. Sue did what he asked, told me he was dead, and even let me blame him for our mother’s death. Guess she thinks I still think that way. Our niece’s name is Valeria, apparently, I’m guessing Victor picked it because I have no idea why Reed or Sue would.” Johnny was tired and realized he didn’t care how cold he came off as.

Johnny scheduled a playdate and told Sue what he knew about their father, clearing the air. Franklin and Valeria had a lot of fun with Lockjaw and Luna. “Luna?” asked Sue.

“Yeah, it means moon, right?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Without the Watcher breaking his oath, we’d all be dead.”

“I guess that’s fair.”

“What about Valeria? Do- Victor ever explain her name?”

“His first love.”

“Aw. I don’t know if that’s cute or creepy.”

“We tend to lean towards cute but the first sign he’s imprinting,”

“Reed will banish to the Negative Zone?”

“That’s the plan, though I doubt it’ll be needed.”

“So now you know?” At her look. “About Doom?”

“How long did you know?”

“Well, he kinda told me. Apparently Doom thought your scent was some kind of a trick. When he monologued as much, I was confused until I realized that we’ve almost never seen him without his armor or scent blockers.”

Crystal said “I’m confused.”

“Doom wanted to marry Sue, Doom thought Sue was an Alpha in disguise, Doom is an Omega.”

Sue confided “I think he’s moved onto Ben but he learned enough with me and Reed so now he’s trying to be subtle.”

“He does realize he’s never gonna get an Alpha while all the Alphas he knows think he is one?”

“This is Victor von Doom we’re talking about.”

“Good point.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on Ben's story right now as well as a side story for the mutant pairings in this fic. Lemme know what you think of this work/series


End file.
